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WFP welcomes US$3 Million donation from Azerbaijan
 BAKU - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today thanked the Azerbaijani Government for its pledge to contribute US$3 million to its three year relief operation for over 130,000 internally displaced people in Azerbaijan, at a rate of US$1 million per year.
The donation comes at a time when WFP is facing a 25 percent funding shortfall in its current US$24 million operation, which ends in June 2006. An extension of the operation is being considered for another two years at an additional cost of US$18 million.
Azerbaijan became a donor to WFP for the first time this year with an in-kind contribution of some 2,100 tons of wheat flour, oil and sugar, amounting to US$800,000. The commodities were distributed among 130,000 rural displaced households living in very poor conditions in Azerbaijan.
"We are grateful for this contribution which will help encourage other donors to contribute to the operation supporting the displaced population of Azerbaijan," said Amir Abdulla, WFP's Regional Director for Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
"I am confident that Azerbaijan, as a country that has experienced the horrors of hunger, will one day become a donor for WFP's operations in other parts of the world," he added.
A WFP food security and nutrition assessment last March revealed that all internally displaced Azerbaijanis continue to rely heavily on food assistance.
"Seventy percent of WFP's beneficiaries are women and children and the provision of food assistance is crucial for their survival. The donations from the Azerbaijani government will indeed make a difference but more funds are urgently needed if we are to maintain the good work we have accomplished so far," said Rahman Chowdhury, WFP's Country Director in Azerbaijan.
Over the past decade, WFP has been pivotal in alleviating the suffering of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis displaced by the conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s. More than 600,000 Azerbaijanis fled the territories now occupied by Armenian Armed Forces to other parts of Azerbaijan.
The conflict exacerbated an already poor economic situation in Azerbaijan characterized by an inefficient state sector, high unemployment, increasing inflation and limited access to arable land.
Donors to WFP's Azerbaijan operation include: the United States (US$8.6 million), Sweden (US$3.1 million), the Netherlands (US$2.1 million), Japan (US$1.8 million), Azerbaijan (US$800,000), Canada (US$270,000), Denmark (US$260,000), Norway (US$160,000), Switzerland (US$150,000), Luxembourg (US$120,000), and Poland (US$50,000).
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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each year WFP provides food aid to an average of 90 million people, including 61 million hungry children, in more than 80 countries.
WFP Global School Feeding Campaign - For just 19 US cents a day, you can help WFP give children in poor countries a healthy meal at school -- a gift of hope for a brighter future.
Visit our website: www.wfp.org
For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Rahman Chowdhury, WFP/Baku, Tel. +99412-4938096, Mob. +99450-2019992.
Mia Turner, WFP/Cairo, Tel. +20-27545045, Mob. +20-122455769,
Khaled Mansour, WFP/Cairo, Tel. +20-27545045, Mob. +20-122348671,
Nigar Sultanova, WFP/Baku, Tel. +99412-4938096, Mob. +99450-5118681.
Fuad Guseynov, WFP/Baku, Tel + 994 12 4938096, Mob. + 994 50 335 7355
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